Recently on a train from Leeds to London I got chatting with a fellow passenger who told me that he was upping sticks and moving to Malaga with his family. He explained that he was spending £15,000 annually on train fares commuting to the capital for his job and had little quality of life as he left home at the crack of dawn, returning late in the evening. He had not been able to find a suitable post nearer to home so maintained that commuting was his best option unless the family could one day afford to buy nearer to London.

Why many Britons are contemplating a new life commuting to the sun

In conversation with an expat colleague in Malaga who travelled regularly back to the UK, he had discovered that it would be relatively easy for him to buy a detached villa with pool in Spain for far less than the asking price of his own… Read more

According to a global reportabout living costs in different countries, the average price of a kilo of potatoes in Majorca is 64 pence compared to £1.44 in the UK. Could that perchance explain why chips are so common on Majorcan menus and why Spanish tortilla is part of the staple diet?

Spain still offers best value in the supermarket

I make no excuse for a preoccupation with comparing like with like in British and Spanish supermarkets and so I devoured this report with the enthusiasm of a truffle hog. For some time I have been jotting down the cost of groceries that I’ve bought in London and their equivalent in Majorca and so this new survey’s results added another tantalising layer to my own findings. Of course some of the prices seemed strangely at variance with those that I’ve noted. For example the report asserts that a kilo of cheese has an average price tag of £9 in Palma as opposed… Read more

One of the joys of living in Majorca is having the opportunity to interact with the local community – a huge melting pot of native Majorcans and expats of different nationalities. The island is known for its cosmopolitan atmosphere and serves as a magnet for a wealth of talented individuals from other countries, many of whom establish successful companies for the benefit of expats and locals alike and make Majorca their home.

Argentinean Expat Ricardo Sacco in his Majorcan atelier

Of course I’m not talking about businesses that are aimed purely at a specific expat market but those that are expansive, multilingual and are created for the benefit of all islanders and travellers regardless of their country of origin. It’s the same with those enlightened artisans who arrive on the island and carefully hone their craft to attract a wide audience and who engage with their fellow artists in an open and generous spirited manner.

Last weekend about 200 Spaniards in Barcelona and Madrid braved intemperate weather to take part in an international stunt known as the ‘No pants subway ride’ or día sin pantalones en el metro. This annual event, inaugurated in New York 14 years ago by a group of friends using the name Improv Everywhere, invites people around the world to travel on their local underground trains in normal attire but omitting to wear trousers or skirts.

Look who’s not wearing the trousers

The event took place in 60 cities around the world including London where a group of Britons took to the tube, similarly to their Spanish counterparts, donning skimpy clothes and sporting bare legs. Much as it seems extremely silly to leave one’s trousers at home especially mid winter, the idea of the prank is to create a stir, humour and to relieve the monotony of travelling on the underground where many avoid eye contact and sit in sombre silence. Some commuters in Spain failed even to notice the bizarre appearance of the pranksters on Sunday, so absorbed were they in newspapers and books while others enjoyed the distraction to such an extent that a festive atmosphere quickly developed in some carriages.

A sign of the times?

A few years ago in London another type of stunt was staged: the placing of humorous guerilla stickers and spoof signs on tube trains and walls of underground stations in exactly the same fonts and styles as official ones. The trend quickly caught on, becoming increasingly inventive, and to this day the hallmarks of daring tricksters hoping to dispel commuter boredom, can still be seen on some trains. One of my favourites was a skit on the standard Transport for London sign requesting that commuters offer seats to those in need. It showed the image of a pregnant woman, a mother holding a baby and an elderly man gripping a stick. Underneath was written ‘For people who are overweight, conjoined or charming snakes.’ Another fake sign read ‘No sitting. Fine £200’ and ‘Naughty passengers will be crushed.’

Transport for London understandably has a complete sense of humour failure when it comes to graffiti and doesn’t seem too enamoured of japes involving hoax stickers either. What it and the Spanish transport police made of scores of trouser-less travellers infiltrating trains last Sunday is anybody’s guess. All I would say is that I’d far rather be caught planting a silly sticker on a tube train than caught with my trousers down any day.

Anna Nicholas is an award winning blogger and the author of five humorous books about living in rural Majorca. Find out more about Anna Nicholas here or follow her on Twitter @MajorcanPearls

If new research is anything to go by, books have a bleak future in Spain. According to a recently released ‘Barometer’ report undertaken by the CIS research centre in Madrid, fewer Spaniards than ever are reading for pleasure.

Books have fallen out of favour with the Spanish public

Only 29 per cent of the 2,500 people surveyed tucked into a tome on a regular basis while a whopping 35 per cent confessed to never- or almost never – reading a book. More than 70 per cent had not set foot in a bookshop in the last year, and nearly 75 per cent admitted to not even owning digital books in the home. The main reason cited for so dispirited a response was simply lack of interest followed by too little time. Those that did read, chose historic novels – 26 per cent – as their favoured genre.

I can’t say I’m greatly surprised by the findings. When I first moved… Read more

Buoyed up by the ever increasing strength of the pound against the euro and abolition of Air Passenger Duty (APD) for children, British families are more than ever likely to be heading to value for money sunny destinations such as Spain this summer.

It is predicted that more Britons will be flocking to Spain this summer

From 1, May APD will no longer be added to the cost of economy short and long haul flights for the under 12s making a saving on travel of £26 and £142 respectively for a family of four. The tax will still apply on premium class flights but this is unlikely to affect those seeking an affordable holiday in the sun. The change has come about largely thanks to ‘A Fair Tax on Flying’ campaign, an alliance of more than 30 travel organisations that argued that APD had a negative impact on the economic competitiveness of the UK.

In a British supermarket the other day a sales assistant handed me a voucher and urged me to go online to leave feedback about her level of service. Only moments earlier the same thing had happened in a chemist and at one of the main café chains. All offered incentives of one kind or another.

Many online service providers seek feedback from customers

Curiously British and American online suppliers of products and services also seem to be bombarding me with questionnaires of late, seeking my approval and ratings for just about everything. These have included book purchases, travel services, second-hand buys and mobile phone, gift and flower delivery services. I’m a great believer in offering praise where it’s due but I do find this constant craving for feedback rather trying. To me it smacks of attention seeking and insecurity rather than efficiency and encroaches on my personal time. Shouldn’t I expect a company automatically… Read more

Sitting in a café with a Spanish friend just after the New Year’s Honours had been announced I found myself mumbling like a wizard about a few of those named. My chum Marta seemed puzzled at the diversity of the recipients and number of gongs and asked why so many people were being given awards for just doing their jobs.

English poet and author Robert Graves refused an honour twice

I explained that many of those on the list had carried out charitable work, campaigned selflessly on behalf of a worthy cause or had been honoured for services to the country. I cited Esther Rantzen who had founded Child Line and Silver Line on behalf of both young and old and the posthumous award handed to the mother of brave cancer sufferer, Stephen Sutton, who raised so much for charity. Marta accepted that such initiatives deserved recognition but couldn’t understand why so many actors, corporates and civil… Read more

In Spain Christmas is a slow burning celebration that warms up around Christmas Eve and continues to gather momentum through the festivities surrounding New Year until the arrival of Los Tres Reyes Magos, the Three Kings on the evening of 5, January.

Pip pip hooray! It’s New Year

New Year’s Eve in Majorca is a decidedly community orientated event with locals gathering in town and village squares island-wide to raise a farewell toast to the previous twelve months. It is of course traditional in Spain to gobble a grape with every chime of the clock as it strikes midnight but this activity can be greatly impeded if one has been unable to purchase seedless grapes. I am yet to manage eating twelve fat green grapes with pips within the allotted time and I am not alone. This is unfortunate because folklore has it that every grape consumed represents one month of good luck. On that basis I’m in for a mixed year.

Cynics would point to the fact that this charming annual tradition is nothing more than a marketing ploy dreamt up more than one hundred years ago by shrewd wine producers in Alicante in the Valencia region. After a bumper harvest, the farmers purportedly hit on the idea of gulling people into buying grapes to see in the New Year.

Of course some gluttons for punishment attempt to down their grapes twice. That’s because in Madrid’s main square of Puerta del Sol a rehearsal is carried out the day before the 31, December ensuring a smooth running event the following night. This year thousands of party-goers gathered outside the majestic 18th century Real Casa de Correos, home of the regional government for the practice run. Some returned on New Year’s Eve for a Groundhog Day experience while others had had enough of the freezing temperatures and watched events on televisions at home.

During the lull of the next few days Spaniards everywhere will gather their strength in preparation for the next festive assault – the arrival of the Three Kings. This is the spectacular end to the Christmas season the day before Epiphany when gluttony and excess comes to an end and all of us attempt to resume a sense of normality once more.

I’m not sure what normality really signifies but I have a horrible feeling that it will represent austerity in all its forms, including an end to wonderfully indulgent food and wine and a return to the obligatory gym.

Anna Nicholas is an award winning blogger and the author of five humorous books about living in rural Majorca. Find out more about Anna Nicholas here or follow her on Twitter @MajorcanPearls

A few years ago I remember reading about a British Airways flight that was cancelled in the lead up to the festive season because a mouse had been discovered on board. Unable to find the creature, the transatlantic flight had to be grounded, dashing the hopes of passengers en route to New York.

Mice can be nice but not perhaps on a plane

Here in Spain, another furry fugitive has also been responsible for causing disruption on a Qatar Airways flight that arrived in Madrid from Doha. The mouse was seen running down the aisle of the plane causing alarm among some passengers. While the cabin was fumigated, those waiting to board the return flight at Madrid’s Adolfo Suárez Barajas airport were forced to wait for six hours, several missing flight connections. The mouse died, fortunately averting any chance of it gnawing its way through any vital electrical wiring.